Brian Burke has acquired another defensemen via trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Leafs sent prospects Alex Berry and Stefano Giliati for Matt Lashoff. The 23 year old blueliner has appeared in 63 career NHL games with Tampa and the Boston Bruins and spent most of last season in the AHL. The former first round pick joins an already crowded Maple Leafs back end as Burke looks to make sure that this training camp will be as intense as ever since he has been with the Leafs.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have released their TV schedule for the 2010-11 season and all the teams games will be televised once again this season with Leafs TV showing 12 games, CBC 24 games, TSN 17 games and Sportsnet 29 games. The team will also have all its preseason games televised with 6 games on Leafs TV.
Leafs TV Schedule below
The hockey season is just around the corner now and most Leaf fans are hoping that this will be the season to see improvement by the Buds, hell who knows maybe even a long winning streak but what comes to mind through all the gloom of the past seasons is a song by Bob Dylan that gives some hope and has a few similarities to what has happened or can happen in Leafland.
The popular song by Bob Dylan about "The times they are a Changin'" heeds to mind what we in Leafland have been experiencing as Brian Burke continues to make over the roster to a team that will come out to compete every night and most importantly return to the playoffs. The Leafs as in Dylan's first stanza have been sinking like a stone since the lockout with lackluster performances and no playoffs.
This has been a quiet off season for the Toronto Maple Leafs when it comes to the unrestricted free agent market. The Leafs signed Colby Armstrong when the gate opened July 1st and Brett Lebda on July 7th, they also look to have loaded up the Marlies with a few other minor signings but the biggest move of this off season will not be a free agent signing and may just be the yet to be made trade involving blueliner Tomas Kaberle, IF that even happens.
The signing of unrestricted free agents started to slowly take shape in the mid 90's and has grown thanks to the collective bargaining agreements over the years to what we know today. The Leafs first busy summer in the UFA market takes us back to 1997. The Leafs picked up Derek King, Mike Kennedy, Kris King, Igor Korolev, Kevyn Adams and Glenn Healy before the start of that season.
